


The Key (Cat) to my Heart

by doctorbuffypotterlock79



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Brooke is a clueless idiot and we love her, Cats, F/F, Lesbian AU, Mild fantasy elements, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, soft baby Brooke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-08 14:21:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20836922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorbuffypotterlock79/pseuds/doctorbuffypotterlock79
Summary: Based on the tumblr prompt/artwork by @lullychi where a woman offers her hand in marriage to anyone that can get the key from her cat’s neck, but she’s a shapeshifter and the cat is her all along.Vanessa is fed up with marriage proposals, and Brooke is a softie who’s very good with cats.





	The Key (Cat) to my Heart

**Author's Note:**

> So @bennitone brought this prompt (https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/lullychi/188006801905) to my attention, and I have no self-control. Please enjoy this absolute fluff, and leave a comment if you'd like!

Vanessa was the most beautiful woman in the village. People came far and wide to tell her how beautiful she was, to lay flowers at her feet, and heap marriage proposals on her. But she always refused. 

Vanessa was beautiful, anyone with eyes would agree, but she was kind, too. Brooke worked at a tiny café in the village, and customers scowled and yelled at her all day long. Vanessa was always sweet to her when she came in for her morning coffee, with a splash of cream and a spoon of sugar. Sometimes she even came back in the afternoon for a sandwich, and Brooke knew to give her extra tomatoes. 

But Vanessa hadn’t been in for a few days, because she couldn’t take more than two steps from her cottage door without someone rushing at her asking for a date if they were somewhat kind or demanding immediate marriage on the spot if they weren’t kind at all.

Brooke understood why Vanessa stayed inside, but she had to admit how empty it felt at the café without her smile, without her rough but warm voice telling Brooke to enjoy her day, which she would turn over in her mind enough to tune out customers berating her because their coffee was exactly what they had ordered but somehow not what they wanted.

She hoped Vanessa came back soon.

\---

One day Vanessa stood in the village square and announced a game. Since everyone wanted to marry her so badly, she would put it in their hands: she would tie the key to her cottage around her kitten’s neck, and she would marry anyone that obtained the key. 

The village fell into an utter frenzy. You couldn’t move through the square without bumping into someone mapping the cat’s movements and scheming ways to get the key. Men emptied their pockets buying toys to tempt the kitten, some just waving coins or jewels to attract it. They laid out food on plates to lure it into a trap, but ended up with empty plates and empty traps. They laced up their shoes and chased it for miles, but no one ever got the key, the cat turning circles around them or running up trees, key dangling just out of reach. 

Brooke sat on the cobblestone street, watching a man fall into mud with a splat as the kitten tricked him and changed directions. 

The kitten wandered over to Brooke. Its white fur was swirled with light brown spots, and it had brown eyes as big as tea cup saucers.

“Having fun?” Brooke asked softly. “I bet you are.” She reached out a hand, well-practiced from two cats of her own, and the kitten bent its head. Brooke stroked the fur, so soft she figured it was what clouds felt like. 

She didn’t understand how everyone thought throwing a gold necklace or running after the cat would make it want them. They just had to be its friend. 

The kitten rubbed its nose against Brooke’s bag, and she remembered the sandwich stored inside for her lunch.

“Are you hungry?” Brooke asked. 

The kitten meowed and seemed to nod, and Brooke unwrapped the sandwich. She was pretty sure the kitten smiled and clapped its paws together eagerly.

“Hang on kitty, let me give you the half with more chicken.” She tore the crusty bread apart carefully, holding the ingredients inside. She offered it to the kitten, but it darted out both paws and grabbed the half with less chicken and more tomatoes. 

“I guess you like tomatoes, huh?” Brooke asked. 

But the kitten had already wandered away. 

\---

Weeks passed, and while some still ran into walls chasing after the cat and buying out the toy supply at the shops, many more gave up, muttering under their breath how ridiculous it all was. 

The kitten strutted over to Brooke everyday when she was on her lunch break, propped up against the side of the café.

“I got a surprise for you today,” Brooke whispered. She pulled out a stuffed mouse. “You can play with it,” she explained, nudging it toward the cat. 

The cat rolled around with the toy, meowing in excitement through Brooke’s lunch hour. She continued to pass it pieces of her sandwich, which the cat gobbled up. 

\---

“Come on, I have a friend for you to meet.” Brooke’s own cats trotted along behind her. She met Vanessa’s cat in the grassy field just past the square and crouched down among the daisies. 

“Hey, kitty, these are my cats. Henry and Apollo,” Brooke explained. “Maybe you want to play with them?”

Vanessa’s cat swiped a paw at the other two, the three of them rolling around in the grass together, a tangle of paws and tails. Brooke had brought two sandwiches. She broke one into three and passed it to the cats, and ate the other herself as the cats crawled over her. 

Her clothes were more cat hair than cotton at the end of the day, but it was worth it. 

—- 

“This coffee is too sweet! This isn’t what I wanted! How can you be so stupid?”

“Sir,” Brooke tried to stop her voice from shaking, “You-you asked for it extra sweet.”

“Well, this is too sweet!”

“I-I can make you an-another.”

“Make it. Maybe you won’t mess that one up.”

He stormed out to the streets while Brooke made another coffee, putting in less sugar. The man stomped back in a few minutes later. 

“Whose cat is out there?” the man demanded of the whole café. “It chewed up my pants!”

Brooke smiled and had to smother her laughter behind the counter.

\---

Brooke stretched her long legs and pulled out a book, sun bright overhead. The cat hopped into her lap and trained its head on the page. 

“You can’t read, silly,” Brooke smiled. 

The cat whipped around and gave Brooke a flash of pink tongue, and Brooke laughed. She turned the pages, reading aloud softly so the cat could hear.

She tipped some blueberries into her hand and let the cat’s tongue tickle her palm as she ate them. 

The weight of the cat on her legs made her warmer inside than the sun did. 

\---

A man was chasing the cat around, which was nothing new, but then Brooke noticed his hands. More specifically, what was in them. 

Brooke ran into the village square and the cat bounded toward her. Brooke scooped the kitty up and cradled it against her chest, its small body trembling. 

“Wh-what do you think you’re doing?” Brooke asked the man.

“I wasn’t going to use it,” he insisted, lowering the crossbow.

“I don’t care. Get a-away from the cat.”

The man obeyed, and Brooke took a deep breath. She’d never stood up to anyone before, letting insults from customers roll off her shoulder even as she wanted to cry. But she couldn’t let someone harm Vanessa’s cat.

“You okay, kitty?” 

The kitten nodded and mewed softly, its shakes easing as Brooke continued to stroke its fur. It craned its neck and gave Brooke a damp kiss on the cheek.

\---

Rain had been pounding on the café roof all day, and when Brooke left for the night it was still going strong. The wind howled and the rain came down in sheets, pelting off Brooke’s rain jacket. 

A tiny whimper caught her attention. She picked the cat up where it had sheltered itself under the café window.

“Vanessa must be worried about you, kitty. I can’t leave you out in this rain.”

She tucked the cat inside her jacket, its fur against her chest warming Brooke from head to toe even as the rain came down and splattered up her legs. It was a short walk to Vanessa’s cottage, in the opposite direction to Brooke’s own, but she just held her jacket closed tight and got the cat home as fast as she could. 

It nodded at her as she set it down on the cobbled path that led to Vanessa’s door, flanked with flowers in bright pinks and yellows. It scurried up to the door, and Brooke spent the whole night thinking about walking past those flowers and knocking on the door herself. 

\---

Days passed, and Brooke found herself counting down the minutes to her lunch break at the café, knowing she’d have a blissful hour with the cat at her feet or in her lap. 

She could have taken the key any time. It was right there, and in a few seconds it could be hers. But she couldn’t just take it, show up at Vanessa’s door, and demand marriage. It wasn’t right. 

Besides, she had grown to like the cat. Brooke had never really had anyone to talk to, and talking to new people gave her a stomachache. Even though the cat couldn’t answer her back, it was nice just having it there to listen, to feed lunch to, to pet. 

It was almost like having a friend. 

\---

Brooke decided to take the cat to the park one day, and settled on her stomach on the cool grass, the cat across from her. 

“You’re a lucky kitty, aren’t you?” Brooke mused, burying her hand in the cat’s fur. “I bet Vanessa cuddles you at night, and kisses you…” She found herself lost in the cat’s big brown eyes. “I’d give anything to be in your place. To hug her and kiss her and…” Brooke slammed her mouth shut, but it was no use. It fell open again and the words tumbled out, and Brooke couldn’t stop her rambling. 

“She’s always so nice to me when she comes in the café. I think she smells like coconut but she never gets close enough for me to be sure. I wonder if I’m right...what am I saying? She’d probably be so disappointed if I unlocked her door. I bet she’d slam it right in my face and lock it forever. Why would she want _me_?”

Brooke rolled onto her back and threw her hands over her face, trying to stop the blaze burning through her cheeks. She sighed and looked up at the clouds. 

“Why am I saying all this to a cat?” Brooke muttered. “Well, at least you can’t tell anyone.” She froze and glanced at the cat. She didn’t _think_ it could talk, but... “You _can’t_ tell anyone, right? Oh, please don’t tell her, she’ll think I’m an idiot…” 

She swore the kitten frowned for a second, then leaped onto her chest, fluffy paws settling against her skin. It lowered its head, the key swinging above Brooke’s nose, gold glittering in the sun. 

“You...you want me to take it?” 

The kitten bobbed its head up and down.

“You really think she would like me?”

The kitten nodded again, faster this time, paws pressing firmly into Brooke’s chest. 

“Well, okay,” Brooke wasn’t convinced, but she reached up anyway. “Stay still, kitty, I don’t want to hurt you.” She carefully eased the key from around the kitten’s neck.

There was a flash of light, and the weight on Brooke’s chest got heavier...

Her mouth hung open as the cat vanished and suddenly Vanessa was perched on Brooke’s chest, legs on both sides of her torso. The breeze tugged gently at her wavy hair and her skin glowed in the sunlight. Her brown eyes were just as big and wide as they were in cat-form. 

“V-Vanessa?”

“You did it!” Vanessa crowed. “I was starting to think I’d have to follow you around forever!”

“You…” Brooke’s words were stuck. “The whole time, it was you?”

Vanessa smiled. “Yeah. Sorry I tricked you, but I wanted to see who would respect me when I wasn’t me. I hoped it would be you all along.”

Vanessa lifted herself off Brooke and held out a hand. “What do you say we go use that key?”

Brooke nodded and stood up on shaky legs. Vanessa wrapped an arm around her waist, and Brooke let her chin rest on Vanessa’s head.

She really did smell like coconut.


End file.
